Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I'm back again today with another recommendation for a product that will help make food prep in the kitchen easier.

The Vidalia Chop Wizard and Other "Chop Boxes"

This is another product that is perfect for those of you who have hand pain, pain that makes using a knife more difficult. There are several different brands of what I call "chop boxes" on the market (you can see the variety here on Amazon.com), but what they all have in common is a sharp insert grid that uniformly chops vegetables, fruit, cheese and hard boiled eggs into cubes.

The device relies on you pushing down on the cover, forcing the food item through the grid and into the measuring container below.

Here is a video I found on YouTube that shows the Vidalia Chop Wizard in action:

OK, so what the video doesn't show is that, if pushing down with your hands is a challenge, you can use your arm or other parts of your body to push. I admit that I have actually used my foot to gently and slowly step down on a chop box placed on the floor, which worked quite well!

Pros:

This item really does chop! It makes the most uniform diced onions, vegetables, fruits, etc. you have ever seen. It takes less time to dice onions using a chop box versus using a knife and cutting board. Plus the measurements on the box portion of the container make it easy to see when you have diced 1 cup and are done.

Cons:

I love this device and highly recommend it. However, there is a learning curve to using a chop box successfully, which I will share with you below. This advice really isn't a list of "cons" per se, but more of a list of things you need to know before you use your chop box the first time.

You do need to cut larger vegetables into chunks the size of the insert grid before dicing them with the chop box.

It can also get a little dicey when you try to chop dense raw vegetables like potatoes, yams and beets. You probably won't be able to create french fries with this. And I actually broke my first chop box trying to dice raw beets. (What was I thinking?)

You also need to dice things like tomatoes and pepper with the skin side facing the cover, otherwise the vegetable gets mashed into the cover, not diced into the container below.

Finally, you'll want to wash this right way after using so that bits don't get dried and stuck into the cover, which makes it quite difficult to clean.

Want One Too?

Here is a widget featuring a selection of chop boxes on Amazon.com, where Prime members get these items shipped free to them in two days. (I personally own the Vidalia Chop Wizard.)